Business Studies Trips and Visits
International Visits Week
Every summer Greenhead College allocates one week aside for workshadowing. During this week our Business Studies team has often taken around 35 students to see some unique businesses, examining the impact of the European Union and Single Currency on these firms.
Body Shop, Littlehampton is a usual starting place, investigating Anita Roddick's principles and the reasons behind ethical business behaviour.
";An excellent and well-planned insight into European business and manufacturing, the trip was informative and enjoyable. The various organised visits gave me first- hand experience of business operations"; ELLA and JONATHAN
Later in Paris there is chance to sample the atmosphere, take in a boat trip, and of course visit Eurodisney. Students then examine the profitability of this company using ratio analysis of the company accounts.
At Peugeot, Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris, students gain a full insight into stock control, quality procedures and the latest manufacturing technique. Michelle Vieulle finishes the tour with a talk on the impact of the EU as a trading block.
Other visits along the way have included a working Mohair farm in the French countryside, and a trip to St Omer brewery.
"there were thousands of bottles moving down a huge automated production line - incredible" Gavin Hirst
Visit to Pepsico World headquarters, New Jersey USA
At February half term Greenhead College Business Studies students visited New York and New Jersey, the highlight of the trip being a visit to Pepsico global headquarters to meet Chief Innovation officer Brock Leach and Antonio Lucio, Senior Vice President who gave a talk on Building Billion Dollar Brands on a global scale.
Whilst in New York City the students had a one day business studies convention with key speakers from the international business community. They also visited the Nynex/Comex Commodity markets and Wall Street and the CNN headquarters in the new Time Warner complex at Columbus Circle.
The New York trip is now an annual event and a key date in the business studies diary.
Industrial visits
The Business Studies Dept at Greenhead College has an excellent relationship with key players in the Local, National and International Business environment.
Whether through guest speakers (such as Marks and Spencer personnel management), factory visits, sponsorship or our European Workshadowing week, the opportunities for students to apply their business theory are outstanding.
Here we see the A2 students taking part in an Operations Management simulation organised by A & L Wiseman at Innovation Zone. Students had to arrange a production line themselves and were introduced to the Japanese techniques of Lean Production and Just In Time stock control. Factory visits
At Rolls Royce Motors we were given a full tour of the production line.
"Looking at Quality Control in relation to a Luxury car manufacturer really did develop my understanding of Operations Management" Emma Hurst A2
"The visit to Rolls Royce really showed us how a firm must be marketing focused. Whatever the customer desires is built into each car. The implications for labour and production flexibility are tremendous." Rizwan Yusuf
AS students have also had opportunities to visit car manufacturing plants. The first visit to Peugeot also stopped off at Denby Pottery. Both factories are in the Midlands and provided an interesting and educational day out.
The second recent AS visit was to Jaguar in Coventry. The vast size of these plants simply cannot be appreciated without visiting. When a student sees quality manufacturing in action they learn more than a text book can ever convey.
Visits are an important learning resource. Over recent years we have been to Jaguar, Halewood; Toyota, Burnaston; Zeneca, Huddersfield; Bass brewery, Burton-on-Trent; Trafford Park Printers, Manchester; Ciba, Bradford; Boddingtons, Manchester; Sellafield, Cumbria; Thwaites Brewery, Blackburn; B & Q, Huddersfield; Black Sheep Brewery, Masham; Fox's Biscuits, Batley; Peugeot, Coventry; Coca Cola, Wakefield and more!
The Business Studies department visited Samsung near Hartlepool.
Students were able to apply their recent operations management knowledge to quality and production issues in the Samsung Microwave oven factory and PC monitor factory. The staff and students were able to ask questions and find out about why Hartlepool was chosen as a major location decision. Staffing and training problems were also discussed in some depth.
The staff and students were able to ask questions and find out about why Hartlepool was chosen as a major location decision. Staffing and training problems were also discussed in some depth.
After Samsung it was on to the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough. Football clubs are very much focused on profit like any other business organisation and students were able to see how this huge investment was starting to be recovered due to the various revenue-making schemes at MFC.
Students looked at the effort to maintain the pitch to appropriate premiership standard. The seating segregation was also discussed and how away tickets might be allocated.
The guide showed students where the commentators and the camera's would be positioned for a Sky match.
We were shown inside the dressing rooms - The Manager had left a flip chart with key information about how the players would be organised for corners against Manchester United the previous Saturday.
One of the treatment tables was permanently used by Gary Pallister!
Keeping the press happy is a key role of any business in the public eye. Here we see Asifa Ahmed giving a press conference to Sky Sports.com TV
